Publication of the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)
The Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, was published in Paris in seventeen volumes of text (1751–1765) and eleven volumes of plates (1762–1772), constituting the largest publishing project of the 18th century and the defining monument of the French Enlightenment. More than 150 contributors — including Voltaire, Rousseau, Turgot, and d'Holbach — wrote approximately 72,000 articles covering every aspect of human knowledge, from metallurgy and watchmaking to theology and political philosophy, consistently inclining toward empiricism, religious scepticism, and the dignity of manual labour over aristocratic idleness. The project was twice suppressed by royal council: in 1752 (two volumes having appeared) after d'Alembert's article on Geneva was judged subversive, and in 1759 when the royal privilege was revoked; it survived through the protection of Malesherbes, who ran the royal censorship bureau, and the substitution of a more compliant publisher. By circulating across Europe in pirated and abridged editions, the Encyclopédie disseminated a coherent worldview in which authority derived from reason and utility rather than tradition or revelation — a secularising force whose effects were felt in every subsequent reform movement before the Revolution.
- Year: 1751 CE
- Category: Cultural
